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  But Zhukov was counting on more than surprise, mass, and superior technology to beat the Germans. He planned on concentrating the best commanders and equipment into select units and then holding them until a breakthrough had been achieved. Already, thousands of seasoned Soviet officers and NCOs were en route from the Far East to the country’s western borders. They would man the elite mechanized corps of the first strategic echelon. At the heart of each mechanized corps were two tank and one motorized division. Each tank division consisted of two tank, a motorized rifle, and a howitzer regiment, and deployed 375 tanks. Each motorized division consisted of two motorized rifle, a tank, and an artillery regiment, and deployed 275 light tanks. Each mechanized corps was comprised of more than 36,000 men, 1,000 tanks, and 250 artillery pieces.13 Zhukov also planned on massing almost 2,000 of his newest tanks in his leading breakthrough formations.14

  There were, however, serious problems with the Red Army’s most elite units. The mechanized corps had only half the tanks and tractors, and a third of the trucks they were authorized.15 Furthermore, more than two-thirds of the older model tanks, which made up the vast bulk of the armor fleet, were down for maintenance.16 Finally, although ammunition was plentiful, fuel and spare parts were not. Zhukov had less than two months to bring the mechanized corps to full strength and rectify these deficiencies. He planned on ruthlessly stripping the formations of the second and third strategic echelons to make up the shortages in the first and second. Robbing Czar Peter to pay Czar Paul, the chief of the Soviet General Staff thought. What would Stalin say? But Stalin did not interfere.

  “A Hell of a Way to Fight a War”

  June 22 came and went without a German invasion. Reports indicated that the Wehrmacht would attack in mid- or late July. In the meantime, a steel curtain had descended over the Soviet border. NKVD Border Troops and the Red Army had thwarted attempts to infiltrate additional agents and even airdrop special operations forces into the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the Red Air Force and Air Defense Forces had turned back growing efforts by the Luftwaffe to conduct armed reconnaissance. There had been heavy losses on both sides, with “Stalin’s Falcons” coming out much the worse. Still, the Soviets, with their preponderance of aircraft, retained the upper hand. The Red Army High Command continued to reinforce the border region with antiaircraft and air defense units, and by the end of June, German pilots were reporting the heaviest concentration of antiaircraft guns they had ever seen.

  German low and medium altitude reconnaissance had failed to penetrate Soviet air space to any significant degree. More ominously, the Red Air Force’s own attempts to penetrate the skies over Poland were clumsy affairs entailing the use of obsolete reconnaissance aircraft escorted by hundreds of fighters aimed at overwhelming the Luftwaffe at multiple points along the border. The Germans responded in kind, and the race was on to see which side could throw more fighters and fighter-bombers into the air. Clumsy or not, the Luftwaffe was on the verge of being overwhelmed, and calls went out to Berlin for additional units. The element of surprise and, with it, the hopes of destroying the Red Air Force on the ground had disappeared. The tempo and scale of air operations over the border region continued to grow. Huge air battles, involving hundreds of German and Soviet fighters, began to take place on a regular basis over the skies of eastern Poland and the western Soviet Union, with the Russian pilots coming out worse.

  The German pilots, who had only recently been chasing and dodging British fighters over the English Channel, initially called it the “Battle of Russia,” or more simply, Das Tontaubenschiessen (The Pigeon Shoot). They soon recognized, however, that it was no joking matter. Ivan did not shy away from aerial combat. Franze Schiess of Stab/JG.53 later recalled: “They would let us get almost into aiming position, and then bring their machines around a full 180 degrees, till both aircraft were firing at each other from head-on!”17 What Ivan lacked in finesse, he made up in sheer doggedness. On June 22 three pilots of the Western Military District’s 123rd Fighter Regiment, 43rd Fighter Division, sacrificed themselves in ramming attacks, destroying or damaging three Bf 109s.18 In the meantime, the Soviet High Command continued to rotate fresh fighter regiments into the fray. Losses were high, but the Luftwaffe was being worn away, albeit gradually, and the Germans were left wondering where all these infernal machines were coming from and how long the Red Air Force could continue losing aircraft at this rate.

  Soviet pilots had succeeded in downing several dozen German fighters in air-to-air combat. Still others were lost to the concentrated air defense forces, even though these tended to blast away at friend and foe indiscriminately. But it was the high operations tempo that was taking the heaviest toll of German aircraft, leaving scores of fighters down for maintenance. In June alone Soviet pilots flew more than 7,000 sorties, the bulk against Army Group Center.19 The Luftwaffe, which had to respond to these incursions, paid the price. By June 28 the Germans had only 1,21.3 of an authorized 1,401 Bf 109s on hand, and only 858 of these were operational.20 Parts and fuel, already insufficient for the planned invasion of Russia, were becoming scarce, forcing units to cannibalize inoperable aircraft, ensuring they would never fly again. OKL (Luftwaffe High Command) was forced to fly in aircraft and spares directly from factories in the Reich as well as from France and Italy. A perturbed Feldmarschall Albert Kesselring, commander of Luftflotte 2, reported to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe, “It is a hell of a way to fight a war.” Still, German pilots managed to hold their own, shooting down Russians in droves and adding to their tally. By the end of June air ace Werner Mölders had exceeded Richthofen’s First World War score of eighty victories and was well on his way to 100 kills.21

  By the end of June the Red Air Force had accomplished only one of its three missions, that of wearing down the Luftwaffe, albeit at a heavy price. Almost 1,500 Soviet aircraft, including a large number of newer model Yak-Is and MiG-3s, had already been lost in the fighting. This was not part of the initial plan. The Red Air Force had been suffering attrition at an alarming rate. Zhukov, however, considered the price well worth the effort for he mistakenly believed that the Soviet pilots had not only succeeded in wearing down the Luftwaffe by some 500 machines, but had also denied the Germans intelligence on the deployment of the Red Army.22

  Operation Storm

  More than four million Russian soldiers awaited the final order that would set Operation Storm into motion in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 6, 1941. Two hours earlier, at 0300, 35,000 artillery pieces and mortars had begun delivering their preparatory fires, lighting up the border from one end to the other. Stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, the Red Army was organized into 200 divisions and supported by more than 15,000 tanks and 10,000 combat aircraft.23 In the north, the Western Front’s 11th and 10th Armies would attack southwest toward Warsaw to envelop German forces from the north. The 13th Army constituted the second echelon, while the Northwestern Front’s 27th Army and the Western Front’s 22nd and 20th Armies constituted the third. In the south, the Southwestern Front’s 6th and 26th Armies would attack west and northwest toward Kielce to envelop German forces from the south. The 16th Army constituted the second echelon, the 21st and 19th Armies constituted the third. The strategic reserve consisted of seventeen divisions located around the Pripet Marshes. Operation Storm called for an attack force of 149 divisions, with another forty-eight conducting defensive operations in support of the attack.24

  Zhukov planned on opening the land campaign by dropping two airborne corps behind the German lines to seize vital crossings across the Vistula River. In the north the 4th Airborne Corps’ 7th and 8th Airborne Brigades would seize crossings near Modlin, northwest of Warsaw, in support of the Western Front. In the south, the 1st Airborne Corps’ 204th and 211th Airborne Brigades would seize crossings in the vicinity of Deblin, northwest of Lublin, in support of the Southwestern Front. A second lift would bring in the 214th Airborne Brigade in the north and the 1st Airborne Brigade in the sout
h, completing the delivery of 21,000 Red Army paratroopers and seventy-two artillery pieces and antitank guns. Both objectives were forty-five miles behind the front lines, and the General Staff had allocated one to two days for the fronts’ mobile groups to break through the German line and link up with the paratroopers.25

  At first all went well. The bulk of the aircraft had taken off and formed up without incident in the darkness. As both formations began to cross the Soviet-Polish border, however, several Red Army antiaircraft batteries opened up on the transport squadrons overhead. These opening bursts triggered a crescendo of sympathetic fire from other inexperienced and fatigued Soviet gunners all along the line. Within minutes every Red Army antiaircraft weapon along the border had joined in. Russian air defense officers could do nothing to stop the massacre. They watched horrified as dozens of troop transports, savaged by the intense fire, broke into flames and spiraled out of control, crashing to the earth. Alerted by their opponents, the German gunners joined the slaughter. The Soviet transport pilots broke formation, careening into each other and dumping paratroopers everywhere. A number attempted to turn around and return to their bases, convinced that it was suicidal to proceed.26 Some were “persuaded” to press on, however, by pistol-wielding airborne officers who threatened to shoot them if they did not continue with their mission.

  Fully a third of the airborne force, however, had been lost before even crossing the border. The rest were hopelessly scattered, and easy pickings for the eagles of the Luftwaffe. The operation in shambles, Zhukov ordered the commanders and crews of the responsible air defense divisions shot, along with any pilots who returned to their bases without dropping their men. He also postponed the launching of the second wave. “To make an omelette you must break some eggs,” Stalin remarked matter-of-factly when notified. “Keep me informed.”

  At 0600, after almost three hours of preparatory artillery fires, Zhukov gave the order to begin the attack, sending in four armies of the first echelon. Reconnaissance elements and forward detachments from each army, corps, and division crossed the Bug River against surprisingly light resistance. Swarms of amphibious and light tanks were spreading out on the opposite bank and pushing rapidly westward, while engineers struggled to repair and rebuild damaged bridges for the heavier tanks. Behind them came the first wave of BT-5 and BT-7 fast tanks. “Vperyod!” (Forward!) was the order of the day, as the red horde raced toward the Vistula. The first reports indicated that the left bank was clear, the Germans having abandoned their positions along the Bug River sometime before the beginning of the Soviet artillery barrage. “Nemsti ushli! My Pobedali!” (The Germans have left! We have won!) echoed over every radio, and the tank commanders, throwing caution to the wind, ordered the units onward at even greater speed.

  “Find them!” demanded an angry and not so confident Zhukov of his front commanders. “Get your forces across the river and to the Vistula as quickly as possible! And watch out for tricks!” It was, however, easier said than done. At that moment Luftwaffe attacks along the entire front caught the Red Army divisions massing on the east bank, savaging the struggling engineers and their bridges as well as the trucks and artillery of the first infantry and motorized formations waiting to cross. Hitler’s eagles had caught Zhukov by surprise. The bulk of the Red Air Force units, returning from their first missions, were refueling and rearming at their own air bases. By the time the first squadrons responded, the Germans had already inflicted significant damage on the Red Army’s lead echelons.

  Traveling at top speed, the forward elements of both fronts covered fifteen miles in the first hour, leaving dozens of broken-down vehicles behind them. They found the enemy, or rather the enemy found them, in another hour. The light tanks began to explode, one after the other in rapid succession. First to go were the Soviet command tanks, with their radios and telltale multiple antennas. Having outrun their artillery and with no air support, frustrated commanders ordered their units forward in a mass rush to seize the hills and villages from which the fire was coming. More often than not, the Russians would take their objectives after the loss of dozens of vehicles, only to find the Germans had fallen back to engage them from another village or group of hills a thousand or so yards away. The fire was devastating and the advance began to slow and then to stall. Reports to the rear only brought admonitions and the same order: “Keep moving! Find the German main defensive line!” And so they had kept moving slowly and warily toward the Vistula, losing tanks to the deadly enemy fire throughout the day. The greatly depleted Soviet formations were still some distance from the river when they found the German line. Heavy antitank and antiaircraft guns decimated their ranks repeatedly. Roaming German tanks, firing from both flanks, finished off all those that tried to run away over the next several hours.

  Operation Whirlwind

  “Stalin has sown the wind,” announced Hitler, assessing the latest OKW (Armed Forces High Command) situation map at his headquarters in East Prussia. “Let him reap the whirlwind.” He nodded to Keitel, a worn copy of the 1936 edition of Count Alfred von Schlieffen’s Cannae tightly clutched in his hands.27 Within minutes the necessary orders were flying over the airwaves to the commanders in the field: “Commence Whirlwind.”

  Map 5. Operation Storm

  Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb’s Army Group North attacked at 0900 on July 6, three hours after the beginning of the Soviet attack, with a heavily reinforced 4th Panzer Group and XLI Motorized Corps in the lead. Von Leeb was confident that his six corps and thirty divisions would advance rapidly toward Estonia and Leningrad, smashing the Russian armies in his way. The preparatory artillery strike along a 140-mile front lasted only several minutes. Then the infantrymen and engineers rose up out of their shelters and began their assault. Overhead, almost 400 aircraft of Luftflotte 1 headed for Soviet strong points, airfields, and lines of communications. The Russians had been caught off balance, and in the first hours of the operation von Leeb’s forces reached deep inside Soviet territory, with Col. Gen. Erich Höppner’s 4th Panzer Group slicing its way through the lead elements of the Soviet 8th Army.28

  In the center, Col. Gen. Hermann Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Group flung itself across the border following an intense one-hour artillery barrage. In the first major tank battle of the war, the XXXIV Motorized Corps collided head on with General Kurkin’s 3rd Mechanized Corps in a classic meeting engagement.

  The historian of the 7th Panzer Division, which took the brunt of the attack, described the scene:

  The KV-1 and KV-2 46-ton tanks raged forward! Our company opened fire at 800 meters: it had no effect. The enemy advanced closer and closer without flagging. After a short time they were 50 to 100 meters in front of us. A furious fight ensued without any noticeable German success. The Russian tanks advanced further. All of our antitank shells bounced off them … The Russian tanks rolled through the ranks of the 25th Panzer Regiment and into our rear. The Panzer regiment turned about and moved to high ground.29

  The tankers of Kurkin’s corps advanced unhindered by the German fire, slowing only long enough to crush the antitank guns and their gunners beneath their tracks before speeding off to wreak havoc on the artillery positions farther to the rear. Joint action by the Panzer Ills and IVs of the 27th Panzer Division and the 20th Motorized Division, reinforced with 88mm guns, stopped the Russians dead in their tracks, inflicting heavy losses. The remainder of the German corps deployed to encircle the Soviet corps and complete its destruction. The first phase of the operation thus opened well for the Germans.

  The brainchild of Adolf Hitler, Whirlwind sought the complete destruction of the Red Army in Poland and the western Soviet Union. “Let us show Stalin how the German Army conducts a real Cannae,” he had remarked to his staff, ordering the drafting of a Barbarossa variant. High altitude reconnaissance photographs had revealed a concentration of mechanized corps to the north and south of Army Groups Center and South, and Hitler had correctly surmised that the Red Army sought to destroy Wehrmacht forces in
Poland. Whirlwind called for Army Group North to attack on the morning of July 6 to desynchronize Stalin’s plan by shattering the Russian Northwestern and threatening the northern flank of the Western Military District. In the meantime, the rest of the German Army would fall back to more defensible terrain near the Vistula River, luring the Red Army into eastern Poland, where it would first be ground down by defensive fires and then annihilated by a counterstroke.